1985 SHIVER & SHAKE ANNUAL

1985 SHIVER & SHAKE ANNUAL didn’t lose any more pages (the page-count is 96 as before) but the price went up by 30 p, reaching £2.25. On the positive side, the proportion of pages printed on quality paper got bigger.

CONTENTS: Sweeny Toddler (2 episodes by Tom Paterson), Blunderpuss (2 sets by Terry Bave, one in full colour), The Duke’s Spook (2 reprints), Lolly Pop (one in full colour and one in b/w), Webster (two episodes: a reprint and one possibly new, both by Terry Bave), Ghoul Getters Ltd (2 episodes by Trevor Metcalfe, one in full colour), Are You’re a Scaredy Cat (rating game with art by J. Edward Oliver), Puzzles and Posers (4 one-page instalments), Frankie Stein (2 episodes by Brian Walker: a 3-pager and a 4-pager), Shake (3 sets by Terry Bave and one in full colour by Mike Lacey (reprint)), Ghouldilocks (2 reprints, art by Stan McMurtry), Toby’s Timepiece (a 5-pager), Horrornation Street (2 sets – one by Tom Williams and one in full colour by Crocker), The Hand (2 episodes by Les Barton), Moana Lisa (2 sets by Peter Davidson), Desert Fox (2 episodes by Terry Bave), Ghost’s Revenge (2 episodes), Sports School (2 sets by Jim Watson), Grimly Feendish (2 episodes by Martin Baxendale, one in full colour), Shiver’s Ghoul School (2-pages, a text story with illustrations by Terry Bave), ‘Orrible Hole (2 episodes by Jim Crocker), Shake Your Memory puzzle (art by J. Edward Oliver), Tough Nutt and Softy Centre (reprint, art by Norman Mansbridge), The Forest Legion (4 pages), Shiver (in full colour by Terry Bave), A Haunting Experience dice game.

I find it strange they were still putting out annuals 10 years after SHIVER AND SHAKE weekly folded… The editors, however, deserve praise for not relying on reprints too much.

The book had bright colourful inside covers: a busy set with lots of elephants and ghosts (i.e. Shakes and Shivers) drawn and signed by Mitch:

… and A Haunting Experience dice game:

Let’s take a quick look at some of the features included in this Annual.  

Ghoul Getters Ltd. got rid of two ghosts – first an old lady ghost that haunted a nice gentleman’s house, and then a skeleton in a lady’s closet.

In Lolly Pop Archie asks Dad for a pocket calculator but gets a broken abacus that is good for nothing else but playing marbles; some counting beads fly over the fence, hit Lolly Pop’s central computer and drive all factory production lines mad. 

In the second episode Archie wishes he had a record player but gets an old-fashioned wind-up gramophone instead; he then tries to get some decent records at Pop’s Record Factory, with the usual outcome. Sid Burgon drew the first set and I believe Nigel Edwards is the artist responsible for the other one, check out the last page below:

In Frankie Stein Professor Cube is still trying to get rid of Frankie. He pretends he’s caught a rare disease and tells Frankie that the only cure is in the leaves of a small plant found only in the South American jungles. Manipulative Dad knows that Frankie will immediately volunteer to fetch some to cure him, and will hopefully disappear forever.  But Frankie returns much sooner than Prof. Cube hoped he would…

In the second episode Prof. Cube takes Frankie on a skiing holiday in Switzerland hoping to loose him on a bob-sleigh run, a ski-slope or during a mountain climbing trip. Not this time either…

Prof. Cube enjoys a rare and brief moment of happiness,
believing he's finally got rid of Frankie.
I love Brian Walker's clean and bold brushstrokes!

In Toby’s Timepiece Toby is on a bus, he is on his way to play football in another town. The bridge across the river is down and the sudden jolt of the stopping bus sets the time piece into operation. The boy finds himself in a Plymouth-to-London stage-coach, sharing it with a posh couple. The stage-coach is stopped by Black Jake the highway man who robs the couple and grabs Toby to shake some sense into him. The two of them have a quick journey across time until they land in the age of the dinosaurs. The macho highwayman panics and runs away, dropping the loot. One jolt of the magic watch later Toby is back at the stage-coach where he returns the valuables to the rich couple who repay him with a free ride to the destination of his choice. The stage-coach takes Toby to the town of the football game where he travels back to his own time in 1985 and joins his team.

The Forest Legion drive out a team of tree fellers and road builders from their forest. The strip got a new artist again, but I don’t know his name.

I will finish this blogpost about 1985 SHIVER AND SHAKE Annual with Grimly Feendish. Both sets were by Martin Baxendale and it is nice to see Leo Baxendale’s son take over the strip created by his Dad two decades ago. 

In the first episode Grimly’s aides kidnap Santa and Grimly goes live on TV to demand lots of money in exchange for his freedom. Unfortunately for Grimly, his silly assistants hid Santa’s sleigh in the police car park thinking that there could be no safer place for it… The cops follow the tracks in the snow, find Grimly’s hideout and set Santa free. As his punishment, Grimly has to go down millions of chimneys across the land to deliver presents on Santa's behalf.

The second episode is called Grimly Feendish’s Circus of Crime. Here it is in full:

CHRISTMAS IS A COMIN'

Early this week I received my copies of The Dandy and The Beano - Classic Christmas Comic Covers 1937-1969 book from Phil Shrimpton. This super-nice volume has already been covered, praised and promoted on many other blogs and sites, and I am sure many of my readers have already bought themselves a copy, but since I happen to have a little something to do with the book (as indicated in the Credits section), I would like to urge you to order another one or two as a Christmas gift to your friends and family. Please, remember that the success of this book will determine whether we’ll see more of the kind in the future... 

Copies are available directly from Phil_comics HERE, or eBay HERE. 

1984 SHIVER & SHAKE ANNUAL

1984 SHIVER & SHAKE Annual. The price was still £ 1.95 but the volume got even slimmer and only had 96 pages. Like in the 1983 Annual, two different kinds of paper were used - quality white paper for sections with colour pages and pulp paper for the middle section of the book. 

Contents: Wacky Winter Sports (in full colour by Terry Bave), Webster (2 sets by Terry Bave), Sweeny Toddler (2 sets by Tom Paterson, one in full colour), Blunderpuss (2 sets by Terry Bave, one in full colour), Castle Cackle (3 instalments), The Duke’s Spook (2 sets, one in full colour), Horrornation Street (2 sets by Jim Crocker, one in full colour), Shake (4 sets, two in full colour by Mike Lacey, all are reprints), ‘Orrible Hole (2 sets, one in full colour by Crocker), Lolly Pop (2 new sets: a 4-pager and a 3-pager by Sid Burgon), The Desert Fox (by Terry Bave), Shake’s Jumbo Jests (gags by Crocker), The Forest Legion (a 4-pager), Tough Nutt and Softy Centre (2 sets by Norman Mansbridge, one definitely a reprint), Frankie and the Beanstalk (a 5-page tale by Brian Walker), Sports School (2 sets by Jim Watson), The Hand (by Les Barton), Grimly Feendish (2 sets signed by Swotts), Ghoul Getters Ltd. (2 sets by Trevor Metcalfe from SHIVER AND SHAKE Nos. 73 and 77, one coloured-in), Shiver and Shake’s Diamond Dungeon Game (by J. Edward Oliver), Moana Lisa (2 sets by Peter Davidson, one in full colour), Shiver’s Posts For Ghosts (text story with illustrations by Crocker), Ghouldilocks (2 reprints, art by Stan McMurtry), The Hand Presents Me and My Shadow, Toby’s Timepiece (a 5-pager by Ron Turner), Shake’s Picture Posers (spot-the-difference puzzle, reuses an old ShSh cover), The Ghost’s Revenge (4 pages by I don’t know who), Shiver’s Ghostly Giggles (gags by Crocker), Frankie Stein (4 pages by Brian Walker), Shiver (by Terry Bave).

Upon opening the book we find a busy colourful winter sports scene with lots of SHIVER AND SHAKE characters, all drawn by Terry Bave:

With 10 pages of artwork, Terry Bave was the biggest contributor, followed closely by Brian Walker and Jim Crocker (9 pages each). The latter substituted the regular artist Tom Williams on both Horrornation Street episodes in this Annual:

The Forest Legion got a new artist but I don’t know the name. It is the first ever episode without Boss and Butch who are probably spending their days in jail since their last adventure in the previous Annual… This time Winnie the Witch treats the legionnaires to some magic buns and turns them into her slaves so that they do all the chores for her. Mole is the smart one who doesn’t eat his bun; he uses a spell from the Witch’s spell-book against her and makes the nasty old woman lift her spell from his mates.

There are two Frankie Stein stories in the Annual, both illustrated by Brian Walker. In Frankie and the Beanstalk Prof. Cube tries out his new plant food and grows a giant beanstalk. He causes grand-scale disaster when he chops it down as Frankie climbs to the top hoping to find the goose that lays golden eggs. The beanstalk is so tall that Frankie hits the ground in France and the beanstalk disrupts maritime transport across the English Channel. Frankie crosses the Channel back to England and returns home where an accidental spill of the plant food turns him into a giant…

In the second story Dad has to buy a new set of furniture because Frankie’s broken every piece in Mildew Manor but Frankie smashes it again when he tumbles head over heels down a pile of dirt and into the house after Dad jabs him with a spade.

Frankie sitting on a pile of dirt 
moments before Prof. Cube digs himself 
out of it underneath him.

Both Grimly Feendish tales were illustrated by a new artist who signed them as Swotts. In the first episode Grimly plans to “clean up” the town by drowning it in soap-suds from the local laundry. In the second tale Grimly robs a toy shop but gets into trouble when he tries to pay for some sweets with Monopoly money. Here are sample panels from both sets with the artist’s signature:

There are a couple of new features in the Annual. One is Castle Cackle, drawn and signed by Mitch. Here is one of the three installments from the book:

It is the first time that a text story is included in a SHIVER AND SHAKE publication. In a 2-page tale called Shiver’s Posts for Ghosts the protagonist (Shiver the spook) tells us about his efforts to earn himself some cash by standing in for other ghosts while they go on holiday. Check out the first page of the feature below. Jim Crocker provided illustrations.

I would also like to mention Shiver and Shake’s Diamond Dungeon game drawn and signed by J.Edward Oliver:

As usual, I’ve saved my personal highlight for the end of the blogpost. I am not a fan of Toby’s Timepiece but this time I find the story quite good. Ron Turner’s artwork makes it even better. Here it is in full: